Have you ever noticed that the nations, various religions 'et
al' always seem compelled to meet and focus on what Adolph Hitler
called his "Final Solution to the Jewish Question"? As
a practical matter Jews as a minority should not even be a matter
of discussion, but they are! Invariably, they are good citizens,
industrious, and, therefore, not a burden but beneficial to any
society in which they live. Mostly they strengthen the well-being
of any country as they are disproportionate contributors to
advancements in medicine, sciences, the arts, etc.

Granted, there may be some minor resentment, even envy, for
their valuable contributions to society which makes it puzzling
as to the high level meetings of supposedly civilized, educated
and cultured people to decide the fate of the Jewish people,
usually in the negative. Perhaps it all began with the Church of
Rome and its struggle to separate itself from its own Jewish
roots. That, too, has always been one of the great puzzles of the
world's history. Why select a Jew to be your deity or passage to
G-d and then proceed not only to make separation a tenet of a new
religion but, actually make it Church policy to hunt down the
blood relatives of the Jew they worshiped and whose approval they
sought?

I have often wondered if being a Christian who accepts a Jew
as their deity is not the first, unplanned step of becoming a Jew
with all that the Jews agreed to in their Covenant with HaShem.
It is an interesting question which may be answered in this life
or the next. If the Jews are such an infinitesimal minority among
the nations, why do these nations keep having hostile meetings
about us? I am reminded of Arnold Toynbee's speculation as to why
the Jews are still here at all when other 'greater' civilizations
have trekked into extinction like the dinosaurs.

I suppose one could go back in History and recount the
meetings in ancient Rome where the Roman Senate met to debate
such matters as the rebellious Jewish people who refused to
acknowledge their gods. We could cover the past history of when
nation upon nation met to decide the fate of the Jews by invading
Jerusalem in order to capture or rather subjugate the G-d of the
Hebrew people and add Him to their panoply of gods. But, we have
neither enough space nor enough of your patience to recount all
those decision-making bodies who met to decide their contemporary
solutions to the 'Jewish Question'.

Today we have such bodies as the United Nations meeting,
voting, invariably condemning the only State of the Jews -
Israel. Then there are individual associations like the Arab
League who similarly meet to discuss their solutions and methods
of choice to eliminate the Jewish State. There are individual
Arab nations such as Iran, Syria, Iraq and even Egypt who, under
the guidance of Islamic clerics and dictators often meet to
decide which weapons are the best to totally eliminate the Jews
of Israel. Here again, the Arabs, who track their lineage back
through Ishmael and his father Avraham, are consumed with the
'Jewish Question' and how they can claim the Covenant G-d made
with the Jews.

Recently, there were a series of meetings of what has come to
been known as the "Quartet" consisting of various
nations who again are empowered (or take upon themselves the
power) to decide the fate of the Jews. The Quartet consists of
America, led by Secretary of State Colin Powell, the E.U.
(European Union), the U.N. and Russia. They met on September 17th
at the U.N. and decided to create another Arab State called
"Palestine" by 2005. Even as they met, they knew beyond
question that a so-called Palestinian State would become another
hostile terrorist base and soon link up with other Arab/Islamic
nations of like thought in a continuing effort to eliminate the
Jewish State.

On September 18th the American Secretary of State Colin L.
Powell has pledged a "Palestinian Arab State by the year
2003! - to be followed by permanent status solution in 2005"
despite Palestinian Arabs' failure to fulfill President George W.
Bush's conditions. Powell seems to be the guiding coordinator of
another "Solution to the Jewish Question".

This brings to mind the questions: What offends the world
about Israel? What about Israel, offends Colin L. Powell, Kofi
Annan, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Louis Farrakhan, Jesse
Jackson, Idi Amin, Andrew Young, Juan Williams, and other
prominent black men? Strangely. Over the years Jews were well out
in front of the rest of the world demonstrating for racial
equality in Selma, Alabama and other segregated places in
America. Is this where the homily: "No good deed goes
unpunished." Clearly people like Martin Luther King,
Condolezza Rice, Alan Keyes and many others are the honorable
exceptions.

Similar meetings occurred during WWII among the Allied
governments. None of the participating nations themselves have
ever allowed a hostile minority to claim or occupy a part of
their homeland.

Of note were the Evian Conference and the Bermuda Conference
led by the major nations of America, Britain, France, the Soviet
Union, etc. Their discussions covered the war with the Axis, Eg.,
Germany, Japan, Italy. When the subject turned to the matter of
the Genocide of the Jews of Europe, the cold calculating decision
was made NOT to rescue, house, feed or clothe the Jewish
refugees. In addition, all borders were closed to those Jews who
managed to escape Europe. Regrettably, the Allies although
fighting Hitler's Axis ended up joining him in his Jewish
Solution by knowingly refusing to attempt rescue - even to the
point of refusing to bomb the crematoria as the furnaces burned
Jews day and night.

The statement to the public was that a rescue of sorts would
take place after the Germans were defeated. The British and
American Intelligence Agencies knew how many Jews were being
"exterminated" each day in the 'concentration/death'
camps. Even that belated rescue never materialized because the
British, in deference to the Arabs, placed any Jews escaping to
Palestine in concentration camps in Cyprus.

Don't you find it strange that the Jewish remnant left to the
tender mercies of the civilized world could command such
attention. There are now an estimated 16 million Jews left on
this planet. Demographers estimate that, with normal birth,
death, loss in wars, the Jewish people should number between
180-250 million. However, as a result of the numerous 'meetings'
to decide the fate of the Jews throughout the centuries, and the
resulting action of their decisions there are only 16 million
Jews left in the world.

At the moment if the Arab nations and the Europeans have their
way the 5 million Jews in Israel would become zero. As for the
rest, presumably they would be pushed into assimilation -
possibly out of fear. Of course, the major religions have been
working diligently to either absorb or eliminate the Jews from
time immemorial but, have not yet succeeded.

Let us assume for a moment that the various nations,
religions, commercial oil interests, 'et al' are successful. What
will they have in a world without Jews? What will they do with
the laboratories and research facilities where Jews search for
cures to disease? Will they again pounce upon the assets of Jews
as did the Germans, French, other Europeans, Arab countries....?
And, when those are gone, will they fill museums with artifacts
of the 'extinct' Jews, evolving new history, exonerating those
who drove them to extinction? Will they now have HaShem (G-d) to
themselves, having only to fight each other to become the
'rightful heir' to G-d's Covenant with the Jews? Will, in the
end, they discover that their greedy fist closed over nothing
that they can hold?

Hitler wanted to create a vast museum of Jewish artifacts,
attesting to his great deed of extinguishing the Jewish people.
In Poland, some Polish people are trying to resurrect the image
of Jewish culture in music, cafés, Yiddish and Klezmer music
without Jews. They assisted Hitler in the liquidation of 3
million Polish Jews and, now, they want some of it back.

No doubt, they will keep meeting to decide our fate and the
best solution suitable to them - not the Jews but them! I always
wonder if G-d's promise to Abraham, that "I will curse those
who curse thee; and I will bless those who bless thee!" will
happen successfully in our time so that we can watch the
retribution. I hope so.

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Emanuel A. Winston is research associate of the Freeman Center
For Strategic Studies.